The present invention relates to an opening roof system for a convertible vehicle.
European patent application EP-A-0 956 990 in the name of the Applicant discloses an opening roof system for a convertible vehicle, which system comprises at least one rear roof element that is movable relative to the bodywork of said vehicle between a closed position and a position where it is stored in the rear trunk of the vehicle. In this stored position, the rear roof element has its concave side facing upwards. The rear roof element has a central element that is movable relative to said rear roof element.
The roof system also comprises means for guiding said central element during the displacement of said rear element, which means are adapted to maintain said central element substantially parallel to itself during its corresponding displacement between its closed position and its stored position in said rear trunk.
The central element which is constituted by the rear window of the vehicle is guided by arms that are hinged to the chassis and to the rear roof element, thus enabling the rear window to be guided and positioned accurately inside the rear trunk of the vehicle.
While the rear roof element is pivoting in a first direction relative to the bodywork of the vehicle, the central window pivots in the opposite direction relative to the rear roof element.
Although that opening roof system gives full satisfaction concerning the accuracy with which the rear window is guided, it nevertheless presents two drawbacks:
because the rear window pivots relative to the rear roof element, the side edges of the rear window must be parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle; and
for the same reason, it is difficult to obtain good sealing at the hinge points.
An object of the present invention is to remedy the drawbacks of known opening roof systems, and to propose an opening roof system of the above-specified type which is of simple structure and reliable, making it possible both to obtain very accurate guidance and positioning of the rear window in all of its positions, and to obtain excellent sealing around the entire periphery of the rear window when the opening roof is in its closed position.
According to the present invention, the opening roof system for a convertible vehicle of the above-specified type is characterized in that the central element is connected on either side of the vehicle to the bodywork via two pivot arms, respectively a front arm and a rear arm, and is hinged to respective front and rear hinge axes carried by respective ends of the corresponding pivot arms whose respective opposite ends are hinged to the bodywork of the vehicle, said pivot arms being arranged in such a manner as to guide said central element to its stored position, each of the front and rear hinge axes following a respective predetermined path.
Thus, the central element is free to move relative to the rear roof element about a hinge axis whose ends slide in the above-specified slideways.
It is thus easy to determine the respective trajectories of the rear roof element and of the central element in such a manner as to enable the above-specified drawbacks of known opening roofs to be eliminated.
The rear roof element and the central element can be driven by any known drive means, for example by electric motors that are independent of each other.
In an advantageous version of the present invention, the rear element is constituted by two side portions of bodywork extending over respective sides of the vehicle, the central element being advantageously constituted by the rear window.
The rear roof element thus has no transverse element that might impede the movement of the central element relative to the two mutually independent side portions of the rear roof element.
In a preferred version of the invention, the rear roof element includes respective slideways on either side of the vehicle, the slideways extending substantially longitudinally and being adapted slidably to receive respective wheels secured to the corresponding rear side ends of the central element, and each wheel travels along the corresponding slideway in such a manner as to control the displacement of said central element to its storage position as a function of the displacement of the rear roof element.
In this way, a single electric motor driving the rear roof element suffices also to drive the central element which has each of its wheels driven by the corresponding slideway. The movement of the central element which can be linear or non-linear is thus controlled relative to that of the rear roof element as a function of the shape and the position of each slideway.
Other features and advantages of the present invention appear from the following detailed description.